Dozens killed in Iraqi attack

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A body is carried away following an explosion in the centre of Baghdad.Picture:AFP

A sport utility vehicle packed with artillery shells blew up today in a crowd of would-be volunteers for the Iraqi military, killing at least 35 and wounding at least 138.

Another car bomb north of the capital killed six members of the Iraqi security forces.

The explosion in Baghdad - the deadliest attack since the same recruitment centre was bombed in February - was part of a surge of violence against US coalition forces and their Iraqi allies ahead of the transfer of sovereignty on June 30.

US President George W Bush vowed it would not derail the transfer.

"Terrorists will try to shake our will, to try to shake our confidence, to try to get us to withdraw from commitments we have made in places like Afghanistan and Iraq, and they won't succeed," Bush told reporters in Washington.

"Iraq will be free," he declared. "We're making progress toward that goal."

Bush has made training Iraqi military and police a key step ahead of the transfer.

US overseer Paul Bremer called the attack "awful" and suggested a wanted militant linked to al-Qaeda, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, might be involved.

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"It certainly is consistent exactly with what Zarqawi said he would do back in January," Bremer said.

Bremer was referring to a letter discovered in January purportedly from the fugitive Islamist detailing plans to foment civil war in Iraq.

The blast scattered bodies and debris across a four-lane highway outside Baghdad's Muthanna airport, used as a base by both the Iraqi Civil Defence Corps and the US military. The explosion could be heard for many kilometres and sent a cloud of smoke over the city.

No American or Iraqi troops were wounded, US Army Colonel Mike Murray said. Most of the victims appeared to be poor Iraqis hoping to join the security forces because job opportunities are limited.

Mr Bush's "overbearing" approach to foreign policy spurned the concerns of US allies and disdained the UN.

Another car bomb exploded this afternoon in a village near Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad, killing six ICDC members and injuring four others, the US 1st Infantry Division said. The ICDC is the main internal security force, created by US administrators to battle insurgents.

In Mosul, Deputy US Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, an architect of the war, said Iraq's security forces ``are not ready'' to take over the job and promised continued US military support.

"You can count on us," he said.

A top US military official said today's bombing in Baghdad appeared to fit a new pattern from al-Zarqawi's terror network in Iraq: simpler, more frequent car bombings to shake confidence in Iraqi security forces ahead of the handover.

Asked if he saw al-Zarqawi's hand in the attack, interim Interior Minister Falah Hassan al-Naqib said, "I think there is some links."

"We are quite sure and confident they are not Iraqis," al-Naqib said. "And we have very good indications that they came from abroad."

Al-Naqib said that one of al-Zarqawi's aides had been arrested, though he didn't say, who, where or when.

Many of the Baghdad victims had just gotten off a bus at about 9am, Murray said. About 100 volunteers were trying to enter the recruiting centre when the white SUV crashed into the crowd, ICDC Captain Hani Hussein said.

The toll was likely to increase, health ministry official Saad al-Amili said.

"We were standing waiting for our turn to register," Rafid Mudhar told The Associated Press from his hospital bed. "All of a sudden, we heard (a) big explosion and most of those standing fell on the ground, including me."

He was unconscious for a while, he said, then managed to reach a nearby ambulance.

Abdul Wahid Shadhan, 32, who had shrapnel in his shoulder and legs from the blast, said he was applying for a job because he had been in the disbanded Iraqi army and was working as a porter to feed his seven children.

Despite the dangers of jobs in the military, civil defence and policy, US and Iraqi officials say there is no shortage of volunteers because many Iraqis have few other options in a country with unemployment estimated as high as 45 per cent.

Jobs in the security services pay between $US300 ($A437) and $US500 ($A728) a month depending on a person's rank - comparable to salaries for teachers and other civil servants.

Bloody bodies covered in dust were scattered around the blast site. An artillery shell could be seen on the road. Insurgents in Iraq often fashion bombs out of shells and other military ordnance.

Surrounded by Western security guards and Iraqi police, interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi visited the scene and described it as a "cowardly attack."

In other violence, an explosion next to a convoy of water trucks today killed a Hungarian soldier and wounded another south of Baghdad, the Hungarian Defence Ministry said.

British soldiers clashed with Shi'ite fighters loyal to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in southeastern Iraq after coalition troops detained a militia leader, witnesses and the British military said.

US soldiers killed five insurgents who ambushed a military convoy near the northeastern town of Baquba, an army spokesman said. However, a local hospital said one Iraqi civilian was killed and five wounded.

An explosion near a fire station in central Iraq late Wednesday killed an Iraqi police officer and seriously injured three others, the Polish-led multinational force said.

Britain said today it will send 270 more troops to Iraq, increasing the number of its soldiers there to a total of about 9,200.